Lawyers reject offer to Germanwings crash families

LAWYERS representing families bereaved by the Germanwings air crash have described an offer of compensation made by Lufthansa as “divisive and unfair”.

London-based Stewarts Law is assisting relatives of passengers who died when the flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed in the French Alps in March.

James Healy-Pratt, a member of Stewarts’ international team, said a formal offer of final compensation made to families yesterday valued lives in many cases at less than 100,000 euro (£70,880).

Mr Healy-Pratt, who is working in conjunction with law firms in the US, Spain and Germany, condemned the offer as being “woefully short of any meaning” to the bereaved families.

He said: “Instead, it creates real and substantial differences in compensation between families based on nationality and domicile.

“This is simply divisive and unfair. All families are expected to reject this offer.”

The offer highlighted the unfair treatment of victims of aviation disasters, Mr Healy-Pratt claimed, and could lead to legal action being taken in the American courts.

Investigations into the crash have found evidence suggesting co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane after locking the pilot out of the cockpit.

Mr Healy-Pratt, the head of Stewarts’ aviation department, added: “It is now expected that the families will seek fair and equal treatment outside Germany, potentially in the US courts, given Andreas Lubitz’s training and supervision at a flight school in Arizona.”

Paul Bramley, 28, originally from Hull, was one of three Britons who died in the tragedy on March 24.

The other British victims were Martyn Matthews, 50, from Wolverhampton, and seven-month-old Julian Pracz-Bandres, from Manchester, who died alongside his mother, Spanish-born Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio, 37.